Oxymoron

Are any atheists out there distinctly uncomfortable about the fact that a great number of believers actually do amazing and dedicated work for charities helping the needy around the world, whilst non-believers seem to be less magnanamous and hedonistic? (If that is a correct perception).

DMB

I don't see what the evidence is for this statement. Atheists have less motivation to organise in belief groups than religious believers do. If atheists do charitable work, they won't usually do it in the name of atheism, although believers tend to do it in the name of their belief. I know plenty of altrusitic atheists.

penumbra

I'm uncomfortable with the perception, but doubt there is much any of us could do to overcome it.

I suppose one could try to argue that Xian's do their charitable work primarily in anticipation of that "greater reward in heaven", which in effect makes it a selfish rather than selfless act, while atheists do so from a sense of true altruism, with no reward promised or anticipated, but I, for one wouldn't want to have to defend that supposition.

Corgan Sow

Hhhhhmmm... you have to admit theists have more motivation to do good deeds out of rewards from their sky daddy(ies).

A real example of a charitable person is the one who does everything in anonymality (or being anonymous) to help people, refusing to take credits or rewards and doing it for the sake of pity or human compassion.

Stephen T-B

I'm not uncomfortable with it. Some religious people act kindly and do good works because they are kind, good people and are drawn to their religion because they identify in it teachings which justify their kind, good impulses - and to deny that there are such people is simply to deny a fact of life.
Many more, I suspect, perform charitable acts from an ulterior motive - usually to score Brownie points by bringing pagans / heathens / infidels into their church.
The total of “Believers” involved in good works is therefore greater than the total of non-believers who are entirely altruistic. Nevertheless, there are is a very great number of them because there are, in fact, numerous secular organisations - Voluntary Service Overseas, Sightsavers, Medicine Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, to name but four - which are out there bringing aid, relief and education to place in dire need of them.

excreationist

A lot of the "good deeds" of Christians involve things like raising money to build churches or pay priests or missionaries... or to spend time praying for someone, etc. Or helping looking after their church, etc. I guess that might be good because it can give others a sense of belonging to a kind of family.

Jamie_L

I don't think that many Christians do good deeds primarily out of a desire for rewards or sense of duty to God. I think most do it because they feel the pain of their fellow man. Just as I think most Christians who live immorally don't do so primarily with consideration of the religious implications. They do so because they just desire to live that way.

I think most people are all the same, atheists and theists alike. We do what we want to do, and our religious or non-religious beliefs overlay that.

As has been mentioned, Christians come together as Christians and do good acts with a public nod to their religion. Atheists don't. So, a Christian do-gooder gets praise as a Christian do-gooder. An atheist do-gooder gets praise just as a do-gooder.

Also, remember there are a LOT more Christians out there. For every altruistic Christians, there are a lot of Christians who sit back and do nothing. Again, non-altruistic people, when discussed in the media, aren't described as "apathetic Christians", just as "apathetic".

So, I think it's mostly perception. I believe (unfounded, mostly) that if you take a cross section of Christians and a cross-section of atheists, you'll see simillar percentages doing charity/volunteer work and similar percentages looking out for #1.

Jamie

Amie

I wondered how deep I could read into the thread before this came up

Ronin

The duck says ~ "Quack".

emotional

Theism has its good side as well as its dark side. It's primarily exclusivism ("One Way", which I call Satan's Lie) that makes theistic religion evil.

"We look on the same stars, the sky is common, the same world surrounds us. What difference does it make by what pains each seeks the truth? We cannot attain to so great a secret by one road."
-- Symmachus, 384CE